A Thousand Ripples
by zenfry
Summary: When a pirate dreams, he travels the seas, pursuing a concept foreign to even the wisest men. The trail he leaves behind ripples and flows, growing and changing into the stories that mark history for an eternity. Stories, that can be found in these pages.
1. Piece One: I am a Liar

**June 8, 2008**

**A while back... a about a year and a half ago as it is, I stopped writing fanfiction. I did however, keep up my writing in general, and have (hopefully) grown a bit as writer since that time. In any event, I was in one of my more nostalgic moods the other day, and I decided to come back to this site, and re-read some of my old work. I wasn't too impressed with the quality of what I found. ****However, it did manage to impress upon me just how far I've come since then, so I decided to start writing fanfiction again. And so, I exported all my old story files and deleted all my old stories available to the public, and have been editing, rewriting, and formulating new ideas for about... forty-five minutes now. And now, I am ready to re-post this first piece, which is further detailed a little bit in the following paragraph.**

**One of the stories I had back then was actually a collection of short One Piece stories, titled "Tales of Strawhats," and the following here is one of the later ones I wrote as part of that. It's part poem, part rant, part story, but all it truly is is a bit of Usopp romanticisim. I hope you enjoy reading it as much I enjoyed writing it, for why else should I bother? Oh, and please, feel free to review when you're done. Constructive criticisim is and always will be appreciated. **

**By the way, apologies to anyone who was bored and/or irritated with my little rant here, I always feel the need to fill the space before the story with something meaningful, to myself if no one else.**

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Piece One: I am a Liar

I am a liar.

I lie because my lies are better then my reality.

In my reality I am weak.

In my reality I am scared.

My lies make me strong.

My lies make me brave.

The lies I tell are my fantasies.

The lies I tell are my dreams.

People see through my lies.

People tell me to go back to my reality.

What do they know of courage?

What do they know, those people with power?

They are not brave, for they have nothing to fear.

They may never see the world as it is reflected in my eyes.

I will show them that world of lies.

I will make my lies my reality.

I will never stop lieing.

I am a liar.

I am a dreamer.

I will never change.

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**Well... that's all for now, I might post another one or two in a bit, depending on my mood. In all likelyhood though, I won't get to post another one until this weekend. The demands of life command us far more then we could ever suspect. **

**_"Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well."_**

**_-Samuel Butler_**


	2. Piece Two: Do you Remember?

**June 12, 2008**

**Hello again, zenfry here. For those of you that read this collection of stories when it was titled "Pirate Tales of the Most Interesting Sort," and were interested in reading the subsequent entries, I apologize for any confusion the change in title caused you. That being said, I may end up changing it again if I don't like how the title/introductory script sound a few days from now. In fact, unless I truly happen to like this title for an extended period of time, expect it to change on multiple occasions. I apologize in advance for this.**

**At any rate, this next little blurb (I'm still not exactly sure what to call them) is told from the perspective of the entire Strawhat crew, minus Luffy. It's also from the original set of stories "Tales of Strawhat," and is actually the last thing I wrote before I stopped writing fanfiction. It's slightly extended to include the newest Strawhat and edited a bit more for grammar, but as it stands, it's more or less a re-print. Sorry. I'll have something cooler for next time.**

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Second Piece: Do You Remember?

Captain-san, do you remember the day we met?

I remember it well, crap-captain.

You called yourself a pirate.

You told me you had a dream.

I laughed.

I farted.

Pirates were nothing to me then.

I had more important goals on my mind.

I had dreams that didn't involve me becoming a pirate.

There was nothing you could do to change my mind.

But...

No matter what I said, you wouldn't go away.

I yelled.

I ran.

I was a gentleman.

Then you... baka that you were… you did something.

Something Super!

Something extrodinary.

You made me feel like I was brave.

You made me believe I could belong.

You saved me.

Strawhat, I knew now that you were special.

I made a vow.

I would sail the Grand Line with you.

Honestly, I couldn't believe it was happening.

I thought that it wouldn't last... that it wasn't meant to be.

But then, as I sailed away from everything that I had ever known…

It was then, when I glanced around me,

And I saw you with your stupid grin,

It was then, and only then,

That I knew,

That we knew,

We were home.

Do you remember?

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**One one other note, I apologize to any Sanji fans who were offended by my use of the word crap as a prefix as opposed to the more commonly used term (st). I do belive however, that I rated this collection of stories as K, and unless I write a selection that I just can't use without bumping up the rating, I probably will continue to do little censoring things like this. (Do not worry, I won't change anyone's name or do crappy voice acting. I'm not 4kids.)**

**Well thanks for reading, and if you have the time, could you please leave a review as well? Thanks.**

**_What is home?  
"A roof to keep out the rain? Four walls to keep out the wind? Floors to keep out the cold? Yes, but home is more than that. It is the laugh of a baby, the song of a mother, the strength of a father, warmth of loving hearts, lights from happy eyes, kindness, loyalty, comradeship. Home is first school and first church for young ones, where they learn what is right, what is good, and what is kind, where they go for comfort when they are hurt or sick; where joy is shared and sorrow eased; where fathers and mothers are respected and loved, where children are wanted; where the simplest food is good enough for kings because it is earned; where money is not as important as loving-kindness; where even the tea kettle sings from happiness. That is home. God bless it!" _**

**_-Anon._**


	3. Piece Three: Gals of the Strawhat Crew

**June 29, 2008**

**You know... not much as changed since I came back to this site. I still find myself pacing up and down my backyard when brainstorming for new stories, I still find myself getting off track every six minutes or so when writing fanfiction, and my heart still leaps for joy every single time I get a review message in my e-mail inbox. Thank you very much for those of you who took the time to review, know that even few short sentences of encouragement compel me to keep on writing.**

**To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure where this next piece came from. I found it in an old mislabeled file, and to be perfectly honest I don't remember if it was part of the original _Tales of Strawhats _series. At any rate, it's one of the few old pieces that I actually liked in it's original form, and with a little fine tuning I've reposted it here for you to read. It's a bit of Nami/Robin bashing, but before you get all blustery about how awesome they are, I ask you to please read the work first. Enjoy!**

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Piece Three: Gals of the Strawhat Crew

They are troublesome, those Strawhat women we hate to love.

For when we gather our courage to trust, they betray our confidence.

For when we fight with them, they always emerge victorious.

For when we find ourselves in need, they abandon us.

For when we call for them, they ignore us.

For when we bleed for them, they laugh at our foolishness.

But they are nakama, and that means more to us then anything.

For when they find themselves trusting, we will be loyal beyond measure.

For when they call out for help, we will answer without fail.

For when they bleed for us, we will return the favor a thousand times over.

For when they cry, we will stop at nothing to avenge them.

In the end, isn't that all that matters?

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**Was it good? Bad? Ugly? Well written? Full of typos? Did it abuse pronouns? If you'd like to leave a comment, please leave a review, I'm completely open to constructive criticism. Thank you in advance.**

**_Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea._**

**_- Robert A. Heinlein_**


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